Academics from the Unud Tourism Excellence Center have been surveying and analyzing tourism trends and traveler habits over the last 12 months, and the result makes for some seriously interesting reading.
International tourists visiting Bali’s Denpasar Regency, which includes beach resorts like Sanur, have increased their average spend by a whopping 11.3% versus 2023. With the average vacation spend sitting at IDR 1,988,477 per person in 2023, the average spend has shot up to IDR 2,242,540 per person.
At first glance, this may seem like quite a small average spend, at just USD 140 per person, lest we forget, however, that the average stay of an international tourist in Bali is 2 nights or 3 days.
While the holidaymakers who spent 7-14 days vacationing on the island make up a large portion of annual visitors, there are hundreds of thousands more who visit for a long weekend or equivalent.
Speaking to reporters researchers from the Ubud Faculty of Tourism, Nyoman Ariana, Made Sarjana, IGB Arya Yudiastine and Wayan Agung Panca, explained the findings in more details. They traced tourist spending habits based on nine criteria for tourists flying into Denpasar.
These expenditures included accommodation, food and drinks, local transportation, souvenir shopping, tour guides, tourism attraction fees, water sports and adventure activities, spa and wellness activities, and nightlife entertainment.
Ariana explained, “It was found that spa and wellness activities tend to be increasingly popular with tourists visiting Denpasar. So spa, wellness tourism activities are important to be developed seriously in the future.”
The data showed that in the year to November 2024, Denpasar Regency welcomed 1,772,975 tourists on overnight stays, this comprised of 448,425 international tourists and 1,324,550 domestic tourists. Data shows too that domestic tourists are increasing their average spend too, though by a smaller margin, just 3.5%.
When looking at the breakdown of demographics visiting Denpasar Regency’s tourist attractions, it is clear that the international tourists mostly hail from Australia, followed by the Netherlands and Germany, with an age range of 27-42 years. Domestic tourists tended to visit from Jakarta, East Java, and Central Java.
Domestic tourists tend to be from the Gen-Z generation and are known to set the travel trends that eventually filter out across traveler demographics, into the older domestic tourism markets, and into the international traveler community.
Ariana explained, “The difference found that foreign tourists seek information via Instagram and Facebook, while domestic tourists use Instagram and TikTok as sources of information. This can be taken into consideration by tourism attraction managers when promoting their tourism products.”
In June 2024, the Central Statistics Agency for Indonesia released a data set exploring the highest spending international tourists to the country’s leading destinations, such as Bali.
The figures highlighted that the top spending tourists in Indonesia in 2023 came from Austria, with the average Austrian tourist spending IDR 69.4 million during their trip to the archipelago, which is equivalent to USD 4,274.
Austrian tourists were closely followed by visitors from Switzerland, whose average spend was IDR 67.4 million, or USD 4,151, during their vacation in Indonesia. Figures for the highest spending tourists in 2024 will be released in 2025 by the Central Statistics Agency of Indonesia.
The Bali Provincial Government and the Bali Tourism Office have long been on a mission to get tourists to stay longer, spend more, and explore further across the province.
In 2025, we can expect to see more promotion of destinations in North Bali and West Bali as the government looks to distribute tourism across the province more evenly.
This will also help tourists spend their hard-earned vacation budgets in more impactful ways. These emerging tourism destinations offer all the high-quality experiences on offer in resorts in the south but typically offer great value for money and an overall lower cost of experience. It’s a win-win!
